"Should I stay or should I go?" Yeah, I know, I can still hear that Clash hit rockin' Bancroft Hall's passageways at the Naval Academy. It "encouraged" the plebes to think about their choice to quit or stay, but the tune became my personal retention anthem for most of my career. A reader asks: I was wondering ...
Fair warning: this is a long post, even by my standards. Hey, it's Thursday, it's a holiday weekend, and (for a change) it's not financial. There's not even any math. But let's get to the post. Ironically for being one of my personal writing milestones, most of this one is written by other people! A couple ...
First, some background. As a newbie niche personal-finance blogger I've learned a lot (more) about the seamy financial side of the blogosphere. A whole cottage industry is swapping links and posts for SEO & money, and it's going corporate. I've been surprised to learn how many bloggers have ...
A reader posted some great questions the other day: What do you think is going to happen with the “retired benefit” debate within the greater context of the DoD portion of the Federal Budget? Will it be another ... slash and burn? What does your financial sense say? The 1990s military drawdown was about the end of ...
"Here we go again": welcome to the largest military drawdown since the end of the Cold War and DESERT STORM. The military shrank over 25% during that one, and systems tech has improved a lot since then. Remote sensors and unmanned aircraft weapons can't replace all of the boots on the ground, but they can sure make a ...
(The first part of this post is over at Jacob Lund Fisker's Early Retirement Extreme blog.) Now for the rest of the story... When I was an impressionable young teen, my best friend's older brother was attending USNA. Every time he was home on leave he wore a Navy sweatshirt and a three-day beard. He'd have a cold ...
Welcome to all the new readers who found this blog last week! The hits immediately doubled, and they've nearly doubled again!! Today's post actually starts over at Jacob Lund Fisker's Early Retirement Extreme blog. He says that ERE-infatuated teens have asked him about joining the U.S. military as a way of retiring ...
When you're trying to balance the Reserves/NG with a civilian career, an extended deployment can be a crippling drawback-- or a unique opportunity. For active-duty servicemembers, deployments are just another part of the lifestyle that includes extensive support and assistance for both the deployer and their ...
Another way to get to 20 years for the pension & TRICARE Everyone who approaches the end of a military obligation has a tough decision: Stay in or get out? The decision is even tougher after the first 10 years: Stay in for retirement, or get out while it's still easier to transition to a bridge career? ...
We're military veterans, not financial advisors. We're trying to share what we've learned and to pay it forward – but you have to make your own decisions.
What worked for us will probably work for you, but unfortunately, we can’t guarantee it. Let us know if something’s not working for you, and we’ll try to figure out a better way... Continue Reading...
Doug Nordman